Declining Immigrant Applications for Medi-Cal and Welfare Benefits in Los Angeles County

Declining Immigrant Applications for Medi-Cal and Welfare Benefits in Los AngelesCountyWendy Zimmermann, Michael E. FixThe nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timelytopics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of theauthors, and should not be attributed to The Urban Institute, its trustees, or itsfunders.The 1996 federal welfare reform law (the Personal Responsibility and WorkOpportunity Reconciliation Act, PRWORA) barred many legal immigrants fromreceiving food stamps and gave states a number of options to restrictimmigrant eligibility for other benefit programs. In California, however,immigrant eligibility has not changed for AFDC/TANF (now CalWORKs),Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) or the county-funded cash assistance program,General Relief.2 Nonetheless, the complex reforms introduced by the welfare law as well asrelated policy changes and practices may be having a chilling effect on immigrants' use of benefits for which they remain eligible.Legal immigrants may mistakenly believe they and their families are no longer eligible for AFDC/TANF and Medi-Cal.3 Immigrantsmay be concerned about new requirements that state agencies verify citizenship and immigration status and reportundocumented immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Immigrants may also fear that their own or theirchildren's use of benefits will render them a "public charge" under immigration laws which, they may believe, would affect theirability to gain legal permanent residence, to naturalize or even lead to deportation. Recently immigrants have mistakenly beenmade to repay Medi-Cal benefits in order to gain legal permanent resident status or re-enter the country after a trip abroad.News of these events also may limit immigrants' willingness to apply for benefits. The following analysis is based on administrative data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services. Thedata provide information on monthly approvals of applications for AFDC/TANF, Medi-Cal and General Relief for January 1996 toJanuary 1998. The data show that the number of non-citizen monthly approvals for these benefits has dropped significantly sinceJanuary 1996 while the number of citizen approvals has either remained the same or declined more moderately. Since immigranteligibility for these benefits has not changed in California since January 1996, this decline appears to reflect fewer immigrantsapplying for assistance for which they remain eligible.4 1. Non-citizen approved applications fell dramatically following welfare reform. Approved applications by non-citizen families forAFDC/TANF and Medi-Cal declined sharply in the months following August 1996 when federal welfare reform became law. Sincethen, the number of monthly approvals of non-citizen-headed cases has remained lower than it had been through most of 1996.In the initial months of 1996, about 3,000 non-citizen headed cases were approved for AFDC/TANF and Medi-Cal each month,compared to about 1,500 for most of 1997.5 At the same time, the number of monthly approvals of citizen-headed casesremained the same at about 4,000 per month. Monthly approvals of non-citizen-headed cases therefore dropped by 52 percentbetween January 1996 and January 1998 while the number of citizen cases approved each month did not change (Table 1). Thedecline in total monthly approvals during those two years (-23 percent) is, therefore, entirely attributable to the decline inapprovals of non-citizen-headed cases. 2. The number of legal immigrant-headed cases has dropped faster than undocumented cases. The drop in approved applicationswas greater for cases headed by a legal immigrant than for cases headed by an undocumented immigrant (-71 vs. -34 percent)— where an ineligible undocumented parent typically applies only for her citizen child (Table 1). One possible explanation for thesharper decline among legal than undocumented immigrants is that during 1996 and 1997 large numbers of legal immigrantsnaturalized — those people would, of course, apply as citizens rather than non-citizens.6 It is also possible that many legalimmigrants did not understand that although their eligibility for food stamps had changed, their eligibility for TANF/AFDC andMedi-Cal had not. Additionally, there may have been widespread (mistaken) concern among legal immigrants that using publicbenefits would hurt their chances for naturalization. 3. The number of citizen children applying for AFDC/TANF and Medi-Cal declined. Because so many non-citizen adults haveU.S.-born citizen children, the drop in approvals of non-citizen- headed cases has led to fewer citizen children receivingassistance.7 The number of newly approved citizen children of non-citizen parents for AFDC/TANF and Medi-Cal dropped by 48percent between January of 1996 and 1998, compared to almost no change (6 percent increase) for citizen children of citizenparents (Table 2). Since the vast majority of those re